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Show 12 always to be interpreted by their acts or institutions. The same acts in different circumstances admit and e1•en require very different constructions. I offer this remark, that the subject may be approached without prejudice or personal reference. The single object is to settle great princi ples. Their bearing on individuals will be a subject of distinct consideration. CHAPTER I. PROPERTY. THE slave-holder claims the slave as his Property. The very idea of a slave is, that be belongs to another, that he is bound to live and labor for another, to be another's instrument, and to make another's will his habitual law, however adverse to his own. Another owns him, and of course has a right to his time and strength, a right to the fruits of his labor, a right to task him without his consent, and to determine the kind and duration of his toil, a right to confine him to any bounds, a right to extort the required work by stripes, a right, in a word, to use him as a tool, wiLIJOut contract, against his will, and in denial of his right to dispose of himself or to use his power for his own good. " A slave," says the Louisiana Code, "is in the power of the master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, his labor ; he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire any thing, but which must belong to his master." " Slaves shall be deemed, taken, reputed, and adjudged," say the South |